Ultimate Coaster Design Book Updated

Roller coaster wheel carrier

I've just released the new edition of my book, Coasters 101: An Engineer’s Guide to Roller Coaster Design. If you purchased the Kindle version previously you get free updates. If you purchased the paperback version, you can get the latest digital version for free now too! The latest edition (third) has pictures, diagrams, new content, a better layout, and other general improvements. My goal is to make this book simply the best, most complete, most detailed guide to designing roller coasters you can find. A few of the most recent reviews tend to agree:

“Very impressive! What a great resource to have..for anyone.” - John S.

“Thanks for writing a very good book. I could not put it down. Lot's of great information. I am a technology and engineering teacher and the information I found here is very helpful in trying to get students more excited about engineering.” Amazon reviewer

Rotation about the track spine

Some of the questions about roller coaster design you will have answered after reading include:

What software do roller coaster engineers use?

What college major is best to become a coaster designer?

How many engineers does it take to design a coaster?

How do roller coasters reach their highest point?

Why don’t coaster cars roll backwards down the lift hill?

Why do wheels on steel coasters come in pairs?

Why do we see so many clones of the exact same ride built at multiple parks?

How does a 4D coaster work?

How much does a roller coaster cost?

How much time does it take to design a roller coaster?

What is the difference between LIM and LSM propulsion?

What sort of background is necessary to get into the roller coaster engineering field?

How do you calculate the amount of power needed for the lift hill?

Currently, there are three options to purchase: 

Paperback - $11.99
Kindle - $9.99
Digital PDF - $5.99

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Kings Island 2014 Roller Coaster Layout

Blueprints of the Kings Island 2014 roller coaster layout have made their way onto the internet a full week before the official announcement from the park. Spoiler alert: Kings Island has already started construction on their new B&M inverted coaster, likely named "Banshee." The roller coaster is being teased as a world-record breaker, meaning it will probably be the tallest, fastest, or longest inverted coaster and possibly even have eight inversions, the most in North America. The color scheme will most likely be blue and silver. Some of the Kings Island 2014 blueprints are pictured below. Banshee's layout looks something like this:

1. Lift hill threaded through the vertical loop
2. Right side curving drop
3. Dive loop
4. Vertical loop around the lift hill
5. Zero-g roll
6. Overbanked turn
7. Batwing element (2 inversions)
8. Vertical loop number two
9. Turnaround
10. Another barrel roll
11. Helix
12. Flatspin/corksrew into the final brakes

If you look closely at the blueprints you can see the footers of two defunct roller coasters: Son of Beast, where Banshee is being built, and the old stand-up coaster King Cobra. As an added bonus, here's an overhead picture of Adventure Express' layout.

 

 

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Constructing the CoasterDynamix Comet

As a Christmas gift for myself I bought the CoasterDynamix Comet model roller coaster. It's an HO scale detailed replica of a classic wooden roller coaster. I attempted to make a short time lapse video of it under construction.

I also put together a short slideshow of my late grandfather's model train set. The display was taken apart years ago and this was just a small way to be able to remember it by.

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Holiday Gift Ideas for Theme Park Fans

The holiday season is officially here and it’s time to go shopping for your fellow theme park fan! Listed below are some ideas I came up of what to buy a theme park fan for Christmas. Some of these items I personally own and others are on my wishlist as well.

Amusement Park Books

Coasters 101: An Engineer’s Guide to Roller Coaster Design: Shameless self plug here. The most in-depth look at how modern roller coasters are designed from concept to creation, including some of the physics and engineering equations used.

Theme Park Design: Behind the Scene with An Engineer- Steve Alcorn’s book is a must read for anyone considering a career in the theme park industry.

What Would Walt Do? – The story of a construction worker during the creation of the Walt Disney World resort after the death of Walt Disney.

Disney World Saving Guide - An ex-Disney employee reveals tips on how to save money on your next vacation to Disney World.

Things To Do in Theme Park Queues – This entertaining book will make your visit to a busy theme park even more enjoyable.


Theme Park Games

Theme Park (Nintendo DS):  Control everything, from the speed of your rides to the amount of ice in your drinks
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum: Let’s face it, it’s going to be awhile before RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 comes out (if ever) so this is the next best thing, especially with RCT3D being so disappointing. RCT3 Platinum combines the excitement and roller coaster, theme park fun of the Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with included expansion packs Soaked! and Wild! Now enjoy more options than ever. Build your own water slide or create your own safari with real animals. Watch guest reactions to your ultimate theme park!

Theme Park Toys

K'NEX Thrill Rides - Hot Shot! Video Coaster: Featuring a coaster car with on-board digital video camera, builders can now see what it would be like to ride their own creations, can share their building achievements with family and friends, and can even edit their own personalized movies.

Turtle Amusement Park Ride Model by Coaster Dynamix: This model is hand-assembled in the USA using laser-cut birch plywood.

Other Suggestions
Give a season pass to your local amusement park, zoo, or aquarium.

Give Yourself a Raise: My free report on how to make a residual income from the internet in your spare time (second edition).

What gifts are you getting your fellow theme park fans for the holidays? Please let me know by commenting below!

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Roller Coaster Design Project

Have you ever wanted to design your own roller coaster? Sure, many of us have. But I’m not talking about using a computer game like RollerCoaster Tycoon or NoLimits. I’m talking about using real roller coaster physics formulas and equations. I recently had the chance to interview a mechanical engineering college student and aspiring roller coaster engineer who has done just that! He has designed his very own GCI inspired wooden roller coaster using only a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and MatLAB. Read all about this roller coaster design spreadsheet on my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog.

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Wing Coaster Design

We're just now seeing an onslaught of new wing coaster designs opening this year with four of them from B&M (including the fabulous Wild Eagle at Dollywood). There have been wing coaster design concepts around for a long time. Check out this airplane concept from 2007. This design is a literal wing coaster as the seats are on the sings of an airplane.

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Verbolten 3D CAD Model

I started working on a 3D CAD recreation of Verbolten, the new family launched coaster opening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg this year. I found a side profile and overhead blueprint on the internet, making this a very accurate recreation. Below are a few screenshots of the first few turns followed by the straight launch track up into the event building where the Black Forest themed area is. If you're one of those people like me that wonder how large the rails are on a roller coaster I can tell you that for Verbolten the rails are 900mm center to center and are 159mm in diameter.

Compare the screen shots of my track to this picture from Behind the Thrills: 

Not sure if I am going to model the entire coaster – it is possible but would take a lot of work. The one large piece of missing information is the terrain.

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Interesting Stengel Engineering Feature

I just posted an interview with Andreas Wild Stengel Engineering (an interview feature started back in September) to Coaster101. What really intrigued me was his response to this question: "At what stage in the creation of an amusement park attraction does Stengel Engineering become involved?"


And his response " ...sometimes the layout shows dramatically false guesses (in terms of accelerations, clearances, etc.) and we have to redesign the layout entirely. Sometimes this is too late to redo things completely and we have to find a compromise which works for all parties." 


Wow! Could he be referring to Intamin projects such as Maverick where they had to remove an entire inversion element? Or Millennium Force where they screwed up the clearance envelope by placing some of the roller coaster's supports too close to the track (pictured below)? I think so. Do you?

Read the full  interview here.

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Omega Tau Podcast Appearance

I recently was interviewed for the Omega Tau podcast (science and engineering in your headphones). You can listen to me ramble about roller coasters here. I'd like to extend my thanks to Markus for inviting me to appear on his show to talk about different aspects of roller coasters.

Omega Tau episode 86 Roller Coaster Design

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How to design a roller coaster book

If you’re an avid fan of Roller Coaster Tycoon or No Limits coaster simulations then you may really enjoy this new book. Have you ever wondered what it takes to design and build a roller coaster? At last, there's a book that shows you. Coasters 101: An Engineering Guide to Roller Coaster Design examines the numerous diverse aspects of roller coaster engineering, including some of the mathematical formulas and engineering concepts used.

This technical guide is the most detailed roller coaster design book to date and will take you through the entire process, from concept to creation. A must read for every enthusiast and aspiring roller coaster engineer!

 I'll be talking about roller coasters on an upcoming episode of the Omgea Tau podcast (science and engineering in your headphones).

Purchase the paperback from Amazon or Create Space eStore.

Purchase the eBook Kindle edition from Amazon.

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Six Flags Goliath Train Rendering

Six Flags New England has posted some great renderings of the new 4-across trains designed by Premier Rides that will be put to use on Goliath (formerly Deja Vu at Six Flags Magic Mountain) when it opens. One of the first questions in the comments is what type of software did they use to create the 3D CAD model? Well, to my untrained eye, it looks very much like a SolidWorks model.

One of the most common questions asked by aspiring roller coaster engineers is what software do roller coaster designers use. I already pointed out that Dynamic Structures use AutoDesk Inventor while it appears S&S Worldwide and Premier use SolidWorks.

Learn more about roller coaster design software.

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Cantilevered Coaster V3 Preview Video

I've been modeling a new chassis configuration for the cantilevered roller coaster. Here's a quick preview video. Sorry for the bad quality. Hopefully we'll have a full track layout next time.

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S&S Worldwide's new thrill ride

Blooloop recently posted a fantastic interview with a vice president from S&S Worldwide. What really caught my mention was the talk of a new ride described as a thrill version of the Free Fly coaster, which will offer a new sensation to the industry, and be exclusive to S&S. Here are the known facts directly from the article:

• ...we have a new concept but you will not see it out in the open.
• It is a thrill version of our Free Fly “family” coaster, capable of a truly unique ride sensation never before experienced and exclusive to S&S...
• ...we’ve patented the mechanical piece that creates the ride experience. 
• We vetted the idea with significant people in the industry last year at IAAPA and over the year.
• ...a new product, especially one of the caliber we are introducing, S&S is making a statement: beyond being creative...
• ...we have partnered with an engineering firm in Southern California that specializes in aerospace and government contracts, and have additional tools and engineering resources we don’t.  This union has created a feasibility study and product analysis I doubt has ever been done before. 
• ...decision to bring in the best talent, worldwide, to create, engineer and validate not only the ride, but also the effects the ride experience has on the human body. 
• ...the ride concept, which has a “4th-dimension type ride experience” but at half the cost of a 4D coaster, is extreme and thrilling beyond previous experience...

What really got my attention from the above information was the fact they have already patented the concept. Knowing this, I scoured the internet to try and find this patent. Well, I didn't find any new patents related to S&S Worldwide or any of their engineers but this didn't exactly surprise me because it sounds like they want to keep this under wraps. 

However, after an extensive search, I believe I found the patent and the type of ride system they could be talking about here. It doesn't have a name that I know of at this point so I am going to dub it "the gyro-coaster."  

The seat assembly is capable of fully rotating about a first axis, second axis, and third axis independent of the track system. The rotation can be free or controlled. Each individual vehcile assembly could have a different degree of motion than the other vehicle assemblies. The launch tower concept looks pretty cool too!

 

 

Here's the evidence that leads me to believe this is the ride we are looking for.

• The patent was filed in 2009. S&S discussed the idea at the IAPPA show in 2010, thus the timeline works out and makes sense.
  
• The patent attorney's office is in Salt Lake City, Utah, not far from S&S headquarters.
• The inventor resides in Southern California (and presumably works for the hired engineering firm). I couldn't find any other information on the inventor, which is odd.
  
• When S&S Arrow filed the patent for the 4d coaster they used James Sonntag as their patent attorney, the same person who shows up on this new patent. 

Is this all just coincidence? I have no idea if it actually is but the evidence would lead me to believe we are looking at new ride concepts from S&S Worldwide. You can see why they would bring in another firm to do analysis- some pretty complicated dynamics there! If this is true, I am really excited by this design concept. The possibilities are endless; the human body being the major limiting factor. What are your thoughts?


How to Design a Coaster

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Sneak Peak at Upcoming Project

I'd like to apologize for not posting anything substantial lately. I have been busy writing an article for Coaster Critic as well as working on a project which I will share the details on in due time. For now, here is a little sneak peek preview.

 Can you guess what it is?

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The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman ride layout

I love looking at ride layouts or diagrams. If you've ever wondered what the overhead ride layout of the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman at Universal's Islands of Adventure looks like this is the best one I've seen. Attached is a diagram of what is probably the layout, at least it looks like it is pretty accurate from what I can remember. It's a very disorienting ride. Number 50 is the unload and load stations. How does Spiderman work? The ride basically uses a six axis Stewart platform  mounted to a vehicle chassis with the added ability to rotate due to a ring and pinion gear system. Attached are a few drawings from the patent for this amazing amusement ride vehicle.

How to Design a Roller Coaster

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Please vote for the cantilevered coaster design

I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for my design in CATIA's 2011Visualization contest. The cantilevered coaster is a revolutionary concept pushing the thrill ride to the next level of unpredictability and excitement by utilizing two tracks which follow different courses causing the vehicle to swing in a side to side yaw movement, pitch front to back, and an up and down vertical stroke. Please vote for me here.

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Roller Coaster Maintenance and Mechanical Components Handbook

Have you ever wondered what a work instruction manual for a roller coaster entails? First of all, what am I even talking about? Well, a roller coaster or amusement park ride manufacturer creates a manual of how to safely operate and inspect their thrill machine. This is basically a work instruction book given to the park and contains all of the preventive maintenance steps as well, safe operating procedures, and anything else needed to maintain the ride. Some of these handbooks even contain mechanical drawings and engineering calculations!

So what does one of these manuals look like? Well, it just so happens that I have been able to find one on the internet and will share it with you. You can download the pdf here. You might learn a thing or to about how a roller coaster works! Be sure to check out some of our other diagrams.

Roller Coaster Maintenance and Mechanical Components Handbook.pdf download

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Software used at ThinkWell Theme Park Design

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What computer software programs do roller coaster designers use?

Today, roller coasters are designed using the latest in computer technology. The universal tool for the engineer that has completely ruled out the classic drawing board is CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. Programs such as AutoCAD are used to draft, adjust and detail bents in accordance with ride standards. Some companies employ proprietary software which optimizes the track  layout at the computer using elaborate numerical algorithms to help keep the g-forces on the passengers below required safety or customer defined limits. Computer programs can analyze dynamic and static calculations for the track, and automatically determine where supports should be placed.

3D CAD software, such as CATIA or Solidworks, now allows designers to have every aspect of thrill ride design all within one software program including 3D models, 2D manufacturing drawings, kinematic simulations, finite element analysis (FEA), and image renders for marketing purposes. Standard parts like bolts, springs, nuts, washers can be taken from standard part libraries or catalogs and bills of material can be derived directly from the model and inserted into a drawing.

Utilizing this type of software is an enormous improvement over methods that were employed even twenty five years ago. The time required to create a ride would be great without using a computer because of the enormous number of calculations required. Changes and iterations can be made much faster using the computer. Rides can also be built to higher standards, quality, and tolerances. Modern 3D CAD systems can help the engineers design the ride within the limits of biodynamic tolerances of the passengers. A simulation of the coaster can be done based on the CAD data, and so the forces and the dynamic behaviour can be determined way before a prototype has been built. The roller coaster is virtually assembled early in the design phase to test functional relations and mechanisms as well as collision detection of components and clearance envelope. When the CAD work is complete the production data is electronically sent to the manufacturer.

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Latest Cantilevered Coaster model video update

Check out the status on my Cantilevered roller coaster concept model. I completed some of the fine details for the main course like the cross-ties, support columns, and cement footers. I also attempted to make a banked track section, which turned out OK minus the rails which look bumpy, twisted, and are generally terrible. Refinement coming your way!

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